Some days, things don't go quite the way you planned.
Other days, they don't go at all the way you planned.
Today was of the latter variety.
We had a blizzard in Fargo, starting Saturday night. We got 5 inches of snow, which really isn't that much, all considered. However, it was five inches of snow with 40 mph winds and -15ish temps.
So, not nice.
Yesterday, it was noon before we were shoveled out...and it was still bitterly cold. Rather than leave, I decided to take my car down to get an oil change and tires rotated. (Since I'm putting a lot of miles on my car, I'm doing this about monthly now.)
Today we took off back to Minneapolis. The first half of the trip, the biggest issue was making sure that we stopped every 20 min. so the younger one could use a restroom (or the snow, which is more frequently available). Lesson: Do NOT buy a 20 oz. strawberry smoothie for a 4-year-old right before leaving on a road trip, and then buy him another drink 40 min. into it.
(Me: See? This is why we don't eat yellow snow. It's yellow because someone peed in it.
Little Guy: Yeah! It was me!)
Things went downhill pretty quickly. About five miles out from our fourth potty break (about half-way through the trip), I heard this sound. It was almost the same sound as a flat tire (thud! thud! thud!), but I wasn't getting the same sort of feeling in the steering wheel. I got out and looked at the tires, but none of them was flat. I also noticed that when I would ease up on the gas, I would get a chirping sound at the same frequency as the thudding. Of course, no towns for about 30 miles. We managed to make it the 30 miles and pulled into a truck stop asking about the nearest garage. They didn't know of one (of course, in retrospect, this seems obvious...why would a mechanic need to take his car to the garage?), but mentioned that there was a car dealer across the road. In fact, there was, and they happened to be a dealer for my kind of car.
That, folks, is nothing but pure luck.
It turns out that the folks who rotated my tires failed to tighten the lug nuts on front, drivers-side tire and one of the bolts had busted off. Aside from that, my front wheel bearings were shot. We don't know if that's the cause or just a coincidence. The dealership hustled and finished it by five (I think it took like an hour)...which is when they closed. (Life in a small town.) I was actually surprised that it was as cheap as it was. I was fully expecting them to charge me nearly twice what they did.
(While the kids were playing, the younger told me he was building a bad guy restaurant, where they serve bad guy food. What's in bad guy food? Vitamins, minerals, and worms. "It's good for me, but it tastes blech," he told me.)
Of course, it was yet another 3 hours beyond that because, in the meantime, it had started snowing something fierce again, and the roads were rather icy. I drove the rest of the way going 40 mph. The kids were amazingly well behaved during the whole trip. (Except, we did have one tantrum...but considering how long things had been going on at that point, I can't blame the kid. I was quite ready to join him.)
When we got home (Home v2.0), the little guy unbuckled his seat belt and said, "Mom, that was a fun trip!"
Oh, to be 4. :-D
Today was of the latter variety.
We had a blizzard in Fargo, starting Saturday night. We got 5 inches of snow, which really isn't that much, all considered. However, it was five inches of snow with 40 mph winds and -15ish temps.
So, not nice.
Yesterday, it was noon before we were shoveled out...and it was still bitterly cold. Rather than leave, I decided to take my car down to get an oil change and tires rotated. (Since I'm putting a lot of miles on my car, I'm doing this about monthly now.)
Today we took off back to Minneapolis. The first half of the trip, the biggest issue was making sure that we stopped every 20 min. so the younger one could use a restroom (or the snow, which is more frequently available). Lesson: Do NOT buy a 20 oz. strawberry smoothie for a 4-year-old right before leaving on a road trip, and then buy him another drink 40 min. into it.
(Me: See? This is why we don't eat yellow snow. It's yellow because someone peed in it.
Little Guy: Yeah! It was me!)
Things went downhill pretty quickly. About five miles out from our fourth potty break (about half-way through the trip), I heard this sound. It was almost the same sound as a flat tire (thud! thud! thud!), but I wasn't getting the same sort of feeling in the steering wheel. I got out and looked at the tires, but none of them was flat. I also noticed that when I would ease up on the gas, I would get a chirping sound at the same frequency as the thudding. Of course, no towns for about 30 miles. We managed to make it the 30 miles and pulled into a truck stop asking about the nearest garage. They didn't know of one (of course, in retrospect, this seems obvious...why would a mechanic need to take his car to the garage?), but mentioned that there was a car dealer across the road. In fact, there was, and they happened to be a dealer for my kind of car.
That, folks, is nothing but pure luck.
It turns out that the folks who rotated my tires failed to tighten the lug nuts on front, drivers-side tire and one of the bolts had busted off. Aside from that, my front wheel bearings were shot. We don't know if that's the cause or just a coincidence. The dealership hustled and finished it by five (I think it took like an hour)...which is when they closed. (Life in a small town.) I was actually surprised that it was as cheap as it was. I was fully expecting them to charge me nearly twice what they did.
(While the kids were playing, the younger told me he was building a bad guy restaurant, where they serve bad guy food. What's in bad guy food? Vitamins, minerals, and worms. "It's good for me, but it tastes blech," he told me.)
Of course, it was yet another 3 hours beyond that because, in the meantime, it had started snowing something fierce again, and the roads were rather icy. I drove the rest of the way going 40 mph. The kids were amazingly well behaved during the whole trip. (Except, we did have one tantrum...but considering how long things had been going on at that point, I can't blame the kid. I was quite ready to join him.)
When we got home (Home v2.0), the little guy unbuckled his seat belt and said, "Mom, that was a fun trip!"
Oh, to be 4. :-D